This application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 2005-103725, filed on Nov. 1, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to differential circuits, and more particularly to a differential circuit having compensation transistors with an exponential current-voltage characteristic for improved linearity of the differential circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
For various wired/wireless communication systems, the linearity of a receiver is increasingly important. The linearity of an amplifier and a frequency converter within such a receiver is an important parameter in designing a radio frequency (RF) transceiver. The frequency converter converts a RF signal into an intermediate frequency (IF) signal having a frequency between that of the RF signal and a base-band signal.
The linearity of the frequency converter allows for preserving signal integrity with prevention of interference by ambient signals. In particular, the linearity of a mixer and/or an amplifier within the frequency converter especially determines the performance of the frequency converter.
Thus, increasing the linearity of any differential circuit within such an amplifier or such a mixer is desired for improving the linearity of the receiver.